Metal Halide / LED side by side comparison

Rob.D · May 26, 2014

For close to a year I have been running LED's over my tank, I began with Radion Gen 2, after a few months I switched to Ocean Revive Arctic. I wasn't pleased with the Radon, so after reading raving reviews about the Ocean Revive fixture, I decided to give the cheaper fixture a shot. Although the Ocean Revive lacks the adjustability that the Radion gives, I found the spread out placement of each individual LED of the OR fixture gave a much better light spread. So far, the OR LED fixture has enabled my corals to thrive with great growth and coloration.

As of yesterday, I set up my new Deep Blue Professional 60 gallon rimless tank, I have the Ocean Revive fixture hung over the left side of the tank and today I was given a 24" Metal Halide 150 watt fixture with 2 24" T5 bulbs, I am going to hang the MH fixture over the right side of the tank.

I will take frags from corals currently under the OR LED fixture to place them under the MH for comparison of color and growth. I am definitely not going to claim this as a scientific test, but since all the comparison corals will be in the same tank and under identical water conditions, I see this as a very good comparison test. As soon as frags are cut and glued down I will take pics of the mother colony and frag for posting in this thread. Most will be acros, with just a few zoas/palys.

solar · May 26, 2014

GREAT! following

gwhook · May 26, 2014

Cool. It will be interesting to see the pictures.

Esage · May 27, 2014

Interested to see how this works out. I've been very pleased with the growth from my LPS under LEDs

revhtree · May 27, 2014

Following

Gladfelter · May 27, 2014

Tag I'm in for the ride

Rob.D · May 27, 2014

solar said:
GREAT! following

gwhook said:
Cool. It will be interesting to see the pictures.

Esage said:
Interested to see how this works out. I've been very pleased with the growth from my LPS under LEDs

revhtree said:
Following

Gladfelter said:
Tag I'm in for the ride

Great!!!!

I set up the Halide fixture today, I haven't had time to set up the bar to hang the fixture, for now I'm using the supplied feet.

I hope to snap some pics tomorrow.

Rob.D · May 28, 2014

Just a quick cell shot.

TruRacr314x · May 28, 2014

Following...awesome test! Are you using a 10K MH bulb?

fltx98 · May 28, 2014

Thanks for posting the pic!

ZIGGY63 · May 28, 2014

Hmm I would like to see the end results, to bad you can't do mh, led and t5.

Wildman · May 28, 2014

Yea that looks really white. Are you going to just use the halide without actinic for the test?

Rob.D · May 28, 2014

TruRacr314x said:
Following...awesome test! Are you using a 10K MH bulb?

I actually have no idea what brand/color spectrum he bulb is; I'm ordering a Phoenix 14k this week.

fltx98 said:
Thanks for posting the pic!

No problem, be sure to start a build thread on your tank!

ZIGGY63 said:
Hmm I would like to see the end results, to bad you can't do mh, led and t5.

LOL, that would require a much larger tank, unfortunately I would be signing my own death warrant if I tried that

Wildman said:
Yea that looks really white. Are you going to just use the halide without actinic for the test?

The fixture has 2 Giesmann blue t5 bulbs, I'm going to swap them out for ATI B+ when I change out the Halide bulb.

bct15 · May 28, 2014

250w mh seems to be the standard but still a good test none the less. Another good test would be to place frags of the same corals at multiple heights under each light and see if both lights penetrate the same. For example the halide may do great midway up while the led may do great near the sand for the same coral.

Rob.D · May 28, 2014

bct15 said:
250w mh seems to be the standard but still a good test none the less. Another good test would be to place frags of the same corals at multiple heights under each light and see if both lights penetrate the same. For example the halide may do great midway up while the led may do great near the sand for the same coral.

The tank is just 12" tall, I'm not sure placement height can factor in; the only lower par areas are the outer edges of the tank, also with a 12" depth a 250 watt would almost certainly bake my corals, unless I hang the light up high, in my case is not an option as I absolutely hate light splash.

bct15 · May 30, 2014

12" won't offer much penetration comparison, but it is something worth looking into eventually. I will still be following this as I have some similar things I'm going to be testing over the next few years.

FL_Reefer · May 30, 2014

There's a good video on you tube from vivid aquariums on this topic. It also contains results aswell.

Rob.D · May 30, 2014

bct15 said:
12" won't offer much penetration comparison, but it is something worth looking into eventually. I will still be following this as I have some similar things I'm going to be testing over the next few years.

It is indeed another good option, thanks for the input!